Barack Obama Economy is a Failure; So Was Bush Economy

People are now recognizing that the Barack Obama economy is a failure. But how much better was Bush? Yes, Bush was able to get away with inflating bubbles further than ever before through Federal Reserve policy. But that wasn’t real economic growth; it was malinvestment. It created the crash that came at the end of his second term in office.

We need to remember this because there is a chance that Republicans will use the failure of Barack Obama as an argument that they are trustworthy. Some are. But others have the same silly stimulus ideas and the same silly bailout ideas.

A new survey released by CNBC reports just 24% of Americans are confident in the President’s economic leadership. Support for Obama’s economic leadership, moreover, is 15 points lower than it was in August 2010, just a few months before the GOP wave swept through Congress. Obama’s low marks comes even as the poll found a slight increase in American’s optimism about the economy.

So even though a few are beginning to think there might be some economic improvement coming up, not many of them are prepared to attribute it to Barack Obama. This is good news for those of us who want to see Obama and Democrats soundly defeated in the next election.

Last week, Fox News analyst Juan Williams suggested that the “improving” economy could bolster Obama and the Democrats in the upcoming midterm elections. The CNBC survey should put that notion to rest. Just 45% of Democrats report they are confident in Obama’s economic policies.

The CNBC survey did find Americans slightly more optimist about the economic outlook. That optimism is graded on a very steep curve, however. The number of Americans rating the economy as “fair” or “poor” dropped 5 points, to 79%. Those rating the economy “excellent” or “good” rose 3 points, up to only 18%.

My fear is that the obvious failure of Obama will be used to lull people into wanting another country club Republican pseudo-capitalist like George W. Bush. Yes, Bush looks like a dream compared to Obama, but such policies are not sustainable. They led to a crash in 2008, which handed Barack Obama the presidency. And they only worked for a time because the populace had more faith in the U.S. financial system than they do now.